yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jelledgeu2:
Disabled top coil

Interesting you have a problem with the Spigen NEO Hybrid case as that is what I have and did not have any issues. That said....

I simply did not trust these chargers to not kill my phone or burn my house down. So I cracked open the side of the charger and snipped the lead to the top coil.

After a week of testing, I can confirm that the charger works properly now and the phone charges the same and in fact stays cooler than before. So now I can sleep at night :cyclops:
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
Very interesting. I assume that the cable could be easily patched later on if desired? Don't suppose you have a picture of that by any chance?
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AliLaPointe:
Anyone else care to confirm this? I'm about to go a snipping.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tmagritte:
If it's possible, maybe you can take some pictures of the teardown so we know what to expect. I think I'll end up going this route as well.

If not, just let us know how it went.

Thanks.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jelledgeu2:
Disabling the Top Coil

Yes, you could un-solder one of the two coil leads from the circuit board. However, taking the charger apart is quite a PITA. Basically the middle section comes apart easy enough with removal of some screws and prying, but each end of the charger is plastic welded with some internal studs and you break them taking it completely apart.

I have two of the chargers, so on the first one I took it completely apart and broke the plastic studs at each end. The 2nd unit I just pryed open the middle large enough to snip the wire. Both went back together ok, but the middle prying method was much easier.

If you want I could make a DIY with pics and have it posted by Saturday. You do need to be careful which wire you disconnect as it is kind of deceiving what wire goes to which coil.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tmagritte:
That would awesome! Maybe TYLT will post a pdf of it on their website as a permanent solution...
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jelledgeu2:
DIY coming

Ok guys, will do on the DIY. Look for it posted in this thread by Saturday morning EST.

If TYLT uses that as their fix, I better get some free stuff..... :laugh:
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mr. Sprinkles:
Kannyn got back to me and told me the latest firmware does NOT solve the N5 issue. Sad times. I asked him if TYLT has any plans at all for a more permanent fix, we'll see if he responds...

Nothing is welded. There are screws hidden under all of the rubber feet that need to removed. The feet can be peeled with the help of an x-acto knife and reused. 8 screws and four clips are what hold the VU together.

The coil you want is labeled F3 and S3. I was hesitant to disconnect a coil because I was unsure how this may affect the components. Good to know the thing at least continues to work.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] stbxxl:
TLYY VU Mod

Since it's now established that the upper coil of the TYLT VU is the culprit for overheating the N5 I decided to disconnect this upper coil from the PCB driver board. It's actually not too difficult if you have the right tools (I'm an electrical engineer working in the field of power electroncis for >15 years) ;). Since I desoldered one wire of the coil I can always connect it again if there's a problem. But so far it is just working fine. :D

Obviously this will brake your warranty and you will do this at your own risk. But I don't care. I'm opening similar stuff regularly (job related).

Attached are a few pics documenting what I did - in case anybody is interested. It just takes a couple of steps:

1. Remove the 8 little screws (requires special star shaped screw drivers) and pull off the top side of the enclosure. There're four flaps which makes this a bit difficult. It eventually comes off with just enough force. I removed those flaps before I reassembled the charger. The 8 screws hold the enclosure together just fine.

2. Unscrew the driver board (4 screws).

3. Desolder one wire of the upper coil. I used a solder iron to heat up the solder joint and slowly pulled out the wire.

4. Isolate this wire with electrical tape and put the charger back together.

I will use it this way for the next couple of days to see how it works.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jelledge:
Beat me to it

Good job, that is about the jist of the DIY right there.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AliLaPointe:
When you say "desolder" do you mean disconnect? If I just tugged on the wire, would that work? Or do I need a special tool to remove it?
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] stbxxl:
Yes desoldering means disconnecting the wire. I don't like just cutting wires as it's difficult to put it together again afterwards (if I wanted to). I used a solder iron, heated up the solder point and slowly and carefully pulled out the wire.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
I wouldn't count on tylt doing that. Lots of liability on their part. IMO they are already on the edge.

---------- Post added at 06:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:35 PM ----------

Anyone want to officially name the modified version? 2 coil version? N5 version? stbxxl version? Anyone think of a catchy name?
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wideasleep1:
Jylt?
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
nice
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wideasleep1:
Chylt?
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
what would that be named after?
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wideasleep1:
A 'chilled' Tylt=Chylt
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tmagritte:
I was actually just joking about them posting this on their site, since they did officially post a pdf of the roll-on method of placing your Nexus 5 on the charger shortly after it was described here...

Incidentally, despite that method not working for me before it does seem to be working now. I think maybe I was rolling it too much (starting at too much of an angle) and actually causing the phone to get pushed up a bit as I rolled it. It's still worrisome that it can be that finicky though, so I think I'll desolder the top coil as nicely described a few posts up. Looks like it wouldn't be hard to resolder it if I ever get a Nexus 7 and want to use it, but for now the third coil doesn't seem to serve any purpose. Warranty be damned. I got 2 units during the half price sale but living in Canada shipping charges make warranty replacement impractical anyway...

Thanks to everyone for helping to sort out this issue!
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
If you got them for half price then you probably got them for much less than I paid for my 2 tylts on kickstarter. Nice grab.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mr. Sprinkles:
Kannyn got back to me with a very brief, but informative reply... He said they're considering another firmware fix for the N5 issue, but they're working on a new model now. Sounds to me like they're focussing more on that as the solution.

In light of this news, y'all may want to keep your warranty intact. A real fix is coming in one form or another. No eta on any of it though, could be a while.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
One big reason for choosing this charger was that it appeared to be universal. I bought my two thinking that it would be useful well beyond the N5. So thanks for that tip and I still hope that we can exchange for a safer device that keeps the same features. I'm getting a bit more confident with your new docking procedures. I think I might be able to wait it out.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mr. Sprinkles:
Yeah, I still have my multimeters hooked up and have yet to see it use the top coil when using that docking procedure. I think it's a solid (temporary) solution. Still annoyed that we have to do it though. The main selling point of this charger was that you could haphazardly put your phone on it and it would charge...

BTW, I didn't come up with the butt first idea. I think this guy did, and I'd say he pretty much nailed it since TYLT apparently approves of it.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
Guess I'm confused. Looks like this post #139 refers to your earlier post #118. Guess it really doesn't matter.

Many thanks to gelledgeu2 for coming up with the cause and workaround. It was a huge discovery.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mr. Sprinkles:
I came up with the metal heating theory and eventually figured out how to reproduce it, he came up with a workaround based on those findings which TYLT later copied nearly word for word.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Momotani-Hitoshi:
I got my RMA TYLT in the mail today... so at the moment there is no hardware revision fix for this issue?
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mr. Sprinkles:
Nope. Not sure why they're doing exchanges for this issue, the replacement is going to have the same problem.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
No
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Momotani-Hitoshi:
I tried desoldering with a cheap old radioshack 15W and 25W iron, but guess it wasn't hot enough. What kind of soldering iron did you use?
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] stbxxl:
A 25 W solder iron should be more than sufficient. Try cleaning the solder tip.

I used a Weller WTCPT solder station. It's standard in our labs.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Momotani-Hitoshi:
Tried filling the tip, added a little new solder to it and it did melt a little bit better, but I couldn't pull the wire off. Maybe I need one of those desoldering suction gadget.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] inscythe:
That is because you need some flux... I did try it myself earlier, and the solder is pretty hard to melt, even when I'm using the 60W one (the only one I have available :p ). I bought the soldering iron in a rush and forgot to buy the stand as well as the flux *feeling stupid*

Unfortunately, since I don't have flux, I ended up snipping the cable anyway... Took me ages to pry open the middle part for some reason...

It charges nice and cold now, even when I try putting it from the 'wrong' way as per the pdf instruction from TYLT.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bekyndnunwind:
Did this and it has been working GREAT!! Thanks so much for putting these instructions here for idiots like me :D
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tmagritte:
I also had difficulty trying to desolder. I have 2 units. On both I was able to get as far as pulling the end of the wire out partially but couldn't get it out completely. Maybe if I had someone to help or knew anything about flux it might have helped... In the end I ran out of patients both times and ended up cutting the wire. On one of them I managed to cut close enough to the end that I think it wouldn't be too hard to resolder it if I wanted to. The other one will be harder.

In any case, after cutting those wires the chargers work fine in both portrait and landscape mode. I confirmed the third coil is disabled as the phone won't charge when held an inch above the bottom ledge (it will normally charge using the 3rd coil at this position) and of course no overheating problems.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] atcjeff:
I found this thread after my N5 went Chernobyl while using a knock off Chinese Qi charger that I bought for my HTC DNA. I don't remember the brand but it did say it was compatible with the N5. I had also purchased a Tylt VU charger on their cyber Monday sale for my N7 so I tried that also. Had the same overheat problems with that as well. Read through this entire thread and now can use my Tylt VU charger for my N5. The roll on method and the landscape method work great. the only problem is, and I don't think disconnecting the top coil would solve it for me, is that I like to use my N5 and a bedside clock. If i put it in the charger using the safe methods described in this thread, the phone still will over heat if I leave the screen on. As long as the screen is off, no problems at all. Screen on, and its the China Syndrome. Obviously, I will be keeping the screen off for now but would still enjoy being able to use it as a clock at night. I know others have the same issue with screen on with wireless charging, any other suggestions?
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
A couple of "firsts" here. I've never heard of another Qi charger causing true overheat issues and never heard of the tylt overheating any phone but the Nexus 5.

Regarding the tylt, it sounds like you are confusing the terms "overheat" charge with a "hot" charge. The latter being less severe, limited to around 110 F or so, and the charge actually completes. We normally see daydream causing a hot charge but not a true 3rd-coil overheat unless you also dock it using the slide method. Basically daydream just causes a more aggressive "hot" charge but isn't activating the 3rd coil.

To me, a hot daydream charge is still too hard on the device but nothing like the 132+ F overheat caused by the 3rd coil activation. As far as a fix for daydream, I don't know of one and since it's not 3rd coil related I'm not sure there ever will be one. I really like daydream myself and I wish this wasn't the case but I do love the charger otherwise. I suppose it may be possible that the phone could survive the "hot" 110 F charges over time but personally I'm not up for taking that chance.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jelledgeu2:
Still waiting for my TYLT reward

Thanks Mr. Sprinkles. Still waiting for TYLT to send me a thank you or reward for saving their ass. :eek:

Oh well, two solids weeks now since snipping the 3rd coil and all is well.

Also, keep daydream off and that helps as well.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tmagritte:
Just got a replacement N5 after my first one died. I've snipped the 3rd coil wire so that is no longer an issue. On my first charge though I found the phone was very warm and Battery Monitor Widget reported around 42degC for temperature. I hadn't had it running before so it didn't have any history as to whether the phone was continuing to charge or the rate of heating.

I had already disabled daydream mode.

Is such a high temperature in the normal range for heating from Qi charging? When I put the phone back on it didn't go any higher than 35 degrees and finished charging.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
mine is usually charging around 37 and occasionally up to 40. No daydream. My tylt is stock but I'm being very careful how I dock it.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] knapz:
Granted I had never done any [un]soldering before I still decided to give this a shot.

Thank you sir!
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bgriffler:
Nexus 4 Overheats, too

Because of the temperature issues, in Oct. 2013, Richard said they would be sending out a "revised" VU once they get the shipment.

I've followed up a few times. To this day, nothing.

Using a Nexus 4 (I know, not a 5) without a case, with daydream off.

Tried the "fix" of how you place the phone on the charger, just out of curiosity--doesn't make a difference.

Time for an RMA
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
I think you have other issues and its its probably getting hot but not overheating. Do you have daydream turned off? So far, for the rest of us, the tilting dock method seems to be quite effective.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bgriffler:
Noted. You're correct, it's not overheating, because it's not reaching the threshold temperature where it shuts down--likely because I've been grabbing it off the charger before that happens. It charges at about 2% per hour (if not less, sometimes even LOSING charge while on the VU). It reaches over 130F but stays powered on.

Daydream is turned off. Other wireless chargers work fine.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
you may actually have a defective unit. Your problem seems quite different than the rest. I'd probably try a replacement if you like it otherwise. Curious, how does landscape work?
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bgriffler:
Landscape does the same. Richard said he would ship a new one once the "new shipment arrived." When I followed up a month later, he said there was no timeline for that, yet. I have two LG WCP-300 that work well, so I'll likely just return the VU rather than replace.

Curious indeed.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kevinsbane:
I use my ghetto fix. I dropped an eraser on top of the stand, so my phone's now resting on the eraser. It raises it enough that the phone only charges via the top coil, and since my "fix" I've not noticed any problems. If i need to charge my N7, I just remove the eraser. Problem solved! Without having to deal with this issue, I can say the Tylt rocks.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jabadala:
Well this sucks, I was hoping this was only a very very minor issue. I just woke up this morning with the Nexus 5 super hot on the TYLT VU; it's been working fine since mid-december 2013. Battery charge was stuck at 40% the entire night. Can someone update the first post with what is causing the problem? Would save new people time having to sift through the entire thread.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
I suggested that a long time ago. I'm not sure the OP is still following this thread. You didn't mention if you found the post about the suggested docking method but I assume you just saw at after your overheat?
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jabadala:
Yes I did. Going to try and carefully mount it in portrait orientation tonight and see if the problem pops up again. I'll be very disappointed if I have to resort to the landscape orientation.

Sad, I absolutely love the design and look of the VU. Although I only paid $35 for it, I would have gladly bought it at full price
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] knapz:
I did the mod to permanently deactivate the top coil and have not had any problems.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
FWIW, I have 2 vu's and portrait without daydream has worked for me without incident since the new docking method was discovered. I also use Temperature Guard Pro to monitor temp just in case. So far it hasn't gotten hot enough to trigger the temp alert. Good luck.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
Little off topic, if anyone objects speak up and no hurt feelings.

I just bought an I-Blason battery case for my N5. I read somewhere that you cant wireless charge with these type cases. Well, you know that didn't stop me from trying:cool:

Anyhow I tried the case on the tylt in every position possible and in each position the tylt gave me a flashing red light. That didn't really surprise me. What did surprise me was that even though the tylt light was flashing red the phone was actually indicating that it was charging:what:

Anyhow I only left it on the tylt a minute at a time, it didn't heat up, but I don't really have a clue what would happen if I left it on there a while. If I do, I won't let it go long without a monitoring the temp the entire time.

Anyone who knows these things want to speculate here?

---------- Post added at 07:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:43 PM ----------

UPDATE: false alarm, I thought the charge was coming from the tylt but as it turns out it was coming from the case:( The tylt it turns out actually won't charge thru the case as reported.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] moomingstarz:
Could anyone shed some light on what the normal battery heat range should be when charging? Its fine at around 35-40°C?
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
mine doesn't usually get the over 37C but I don't think it's a problem.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] moomingstarz:
Perfect. Mine is charging at around 34°C so I think I'll keep an eye on it :)
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] PearcePowers:
Sorry about the delay. I haven't been following this thread -- but I updated the original post tonight. Let me know if I misquoted anything or need to further update it... a lot to summarize here.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
Welcome back. Sounds great to me. Thanks.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] o2bnme:
This has happened to me a few times. First, with my N4 and the Orb, but also with my N5 and the Tylt. The phone has only turned itself off twice due to overheating. All the other times I found it was heating up and switched to a wired charger. I will continue to use the Tylt charger as it is very convenient, but I would like to understand why this happens.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] EmperorX:
Read the last couple pages... Explained in detail throughout this thread
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] knapz:
The TYLT has 3 charging coils. Its been said multiple times in the thread that the culprit is the top coil getting activated when you normally place your phone on the charger. A member posted a tutorial on how to disable the top coil. I did this and I haven't had any overheating problems over the past weeks and I use the charger on a daily basis at work. Below is my phone (sorry for bad pic) and current battery temp.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
I still haven't had any problems with using the pivot method of docking.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] moomingstarz:
That contrast! Loving the way it looks with the white spigen
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] id628:
Received a note from Tylt Support today:

No detail as to the actual changes made.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
I received the same email. When I asked if I could go public with this info and what the policy was going to be for others needing replacements for the overheating they told me the fix for the overheats was the new docking procedure.

I emailed them back last night and specifically asked if the updated units would fix the overheating. So far I have not received a response.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
Ok, here's an update that I think should answer all the remaining questions. The op may want to post the results on the first page.

According to tylt, the updated version corrects an intermittent charging problem. Personally I haven't had any such problems and maybe it isn't related to the N5.

Tylt is saying that a hardware fix to the N5 overheating would require an entire redesign and that is not in their plans. The new recommended pivoting docking method is the final fix.

So in my mind this just about wraps it up. I would say in conclusion that the tylt is the best charger out there for phones without internal metal but is apparently not quite as "universal" as we all had hoped.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mr. Sprinkles:
Sounds like customer support doesn't really know all of the details. Kannyn himself told me a month ago that the latest firmware won't address the N5 issue and it sounded to me like another firmware update wasn't likely to happen. So, I'm not sure why they're wasting money sending replacements out to you guys.

Also, I'm hoping he meant there are no plans to redesign the existing VU... Because Kannyn told me a VU 2 is in the works.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
They said the new firmware is to correct an intermittent charging issue, not the overheating. To my knowledge I've never had that problem.

They didn't say there wouldn't be a new tylt they just said that they wouldn't put out a new one to correct the overheating caused by metal in phones like the N5. They said that particular problem would take a total redesign which they did not intend to address.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] charesa39:
So it would appear the "pivoting docking method" is the final fix. Has anybody had any overheating incidents after utilizing this docking method? I'm especially curious if your phone is in a case like the Diztronic TPU case, where the case raises the phone a tiny bit.
[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NCguy:
mine is in a cruzerlite and no incidents.